Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Business Update

Alok Sharma: The UK’s world-class research and researchers play a vital role in delivering local and national economic prosperity but we recognise that some of that research is at risk from a range of income losses as a result of Covid-19. That is why the Government is announcing today a package to support universities to continue research and innovation activities.Firstly, around £280 million government funding will be made available to universities and research organisations impacted by coronavirus for grant extensions. The first amounts will be made immediately available and will provide additional resource and flexibility to sustain grants funded through UK Research & Innovation (UKRI) and the National Academies and affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to continue developing existing ambitious and innovative research projects. This funding includes supporting researchers’ salaries and other research costs such as laboratory equipment and fieldwork. UKRI will contact universities and research organisations with details of their grant extension allocation shortly. Secondly, from the Autumn, Government will demonstrate its commitment to research by providing a package of support to research-active universities, consisting of low-interest loans with long pay-back periods, supplemented by a small amount of government grants. In sharing responsibility for the future of science and research with our world-leading university system the government will cover up to 80% of a university’s income losses from international students for the academic year 20/21, up to the value of non-publicly funded research activity in that university. We expect the level of support being provided to go a significant way to addressing reductions in research income. The second part of this package will be targeted towards sustaining research and innovation activity and capacity in universities across the UK. Universities will need to demonstrate that funding is being spent on research activity and on sustaining high quality research capacity and capability, with a particular emphasis on STEM research and areas of research typically funded by charities and businesses. This funding will be available to bolster those universities who are taking their own steps to make efficiencies, in line with the rest of the economy, to protect their research bases. We recognise that universities will want to use this funding to protect areas of medical research that have been developed in part with support of charities. Charity-funded research has been a distinctive feature of the UK research system and a successful partnership with government through the charity element of QR. Now is the time to align that partnership as a more sustainable element of the research system.The support made available to individual institutions through this second part of this package is subject to the conditions set out in the explanatory notes on GOV.UK and the final details of the proposal will be subject to business case approval. Government will develop the details of this support package, including further conditions, working with the sector over the weeks ahead. Our research base helps to deliver higher levels of productivity and anchor R&D-intensive companies to the UK, and we will continue to be a welcoming and world class destination for international students and researchers, now and into the future. Government has already undertaken communications activity to promote UK higher education to international students, appointed Sir Steve Smith as the International Education Champion and introduced a range of visa flexibilities for current and prospective international students. This is all with a view to ensuring we maintain the UK’s ability to attract students from all around the world.Alongside this, DfE is continuing to work with BEIS, HMT and other government departments to develop a process through which Higher Education providers at risk of closure will be able to apply to government to access a restructuring regime as a last resort. Government will review providers’ circumstances and assess the need for restructuring where there is a case to do so. Where action is required, this will come with attached conditions. The Government will work with the Devolved Administrations on this approach. More detail will be made available in due course.


This statement has also been made in the House of Lords: 
HLWS314

Department for Education

Capital Update

Gavin Williamson: Today, the government is announcing a transformative, ten-year school rebuilding programme as part of ambitious plans that will benefit schools and colleges across England.Investing in our school and college buildings is vital to deliver the world-class education and training needed to get the country back on its feet.We are committing to a ten-year, multi-wave rebuilding programme for schools. This will replace poor condition and ageing school buildings, with modern, energy efficient designs, transforming education for thousands of pupils.We will start with 50 schools in the most need of repair, supported by over £1 billion in capital funding - with full details of these projects and the wider, long-term programme to be set out following the Spending Review. We expect construction on the first sites to begin from autumn 2021.We’re also providing £560 million of additional condition funding for the school system this year to help support essential maintenance projects. We will set out details of how this additional capital funding will be allocated shortly. This is on top of the £1.4 billion already provided for school maintenance in financial year 2020-21.Part of the £1.4 billion funding for 2020-21 announced in April is provided through the Condition Improvement Fund (CIF), to support essential maintenance projects in schools across England. Today, I am announcing the outcome of the 2020-21 CIF bidding round. Over £434 million will fund 1,476 Condition Improvement Fund projects across 1,243 eligible academies, sixth form colleges and voluntary aided schools.Details of today’s CIF announcement are being sent to all CIF applicants and a list of successful projects will be published on GOV.UK. Copies will be placed in the House Library.In March this year, the Chancellor announced that we are going to transform FE colleges across the country, investing £1.5 billion of new capital over the next five years, starting in 2021.Today, we are announcing that the Department for Education will bring forward £200 million of this capital funding to this year. This will enable FE colleges in England to undertake immediate remedial work in this financial year to upgrade the condition of their buildings and estates. We will set out further plans on capital investment to upgrade the FE college estate in England in due course.


This statement has also been made in the House of Lords: 
HLWS313

Wales Office

Contingencies Fund Advance

Simon Hart: I hereby give notice of the Wales Office’s intention to seek an advance from the Contingencies Fund. The department requires an advance to meet an urgent cash requirement pending parliamentary approval of the Main Estimates 2020-21.In response to the coronavirus pandemic, over £1.8bn of additional funding is included in the Main Estimate for the Welsh Government as a result of consequentials derived from announcements by the UK Government. The Vote on Account cash limit for 2020-21 is insufficient to meet the additional spending need of the Welsh Government in the period prior to approval of the Main Estimates 2020-21.Parliamentary approval for additional non-budget expenditure of £856,557,000 has been sought in a Main Estimate for the Wales Office. Pending that approval, urgent expenditure estimated at £856,557,000 will be met by repayable cash advances from the Contingencies Fund.The advance will be repaid immediately following Royal Assent of the Supply and Appropriation Bill in July.

Ministry of Justice

Prisons update

Robert Buckland: My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Prime Minister, has previously made clear his focus on tackling crime and last year announced investment of up to £2.5 billion to create 10,000 additional prison places that are decent, safe and secure and support the modernisation of the prison estate.I am officially today, jointly with my Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Steve Barclay MP, reaffirming the government’s commitment to building 10,000 additional prison places by announcing the funding and delivery of around 6,500 of these places through the construction of four new prisons which will provide a much-needed boost to the construction sector as it moves into a post COVID-19 world. This work starts with Full Sutton, in East Yorkshire, where we already have outline planning permission for a new 1,440 place prison. Further work is underway to identify and secure sites for a further three new prisons which we anticipate will each comprise 1,680 places, subject to geographical and planning constraints.Together, these four prisons will create around 65% of the 10,000 additional places and will build on the design and progress that we have already made at Wellingborough and Glen Parva as well as on the work we have done to ensure faster, cheaper and more efficient construction for public services, in particular using modern methods of construction.This demonstrates a clear commitment from the government to the UK construction sector and its determination to help the country and the construction market get back on its feet following on from the COVID-19 pandemic by offering a clear pipeline of work and investment.My Rt. Hon. Friend, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and I want to take this opportunity to thank constructors around the country for their commitment to keep construction sites open and operating and for their innovation enabling sites and associated activities to follow Public Health England (PHE) guidance and to adhere to social distancing measures.The impact of COVID-19 on the construction sector has been felt both in the demand for new buildings and the ability to operate safely in line with government guidance. Her Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service (HMPPS) has felt this impact directly at the construction site for the new resettlement prison at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire. HMPPS has worked with suppliers, throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, to ensure that construction has continued safely. Workers are following PHE guidance and the Construction Leadership Council’s Site Operating Procedures.While no decisions have been made on who will operate these four new prisons, we maintain this government’s commitment to a mixed market in custodial services, and it is our ambition that at least one of these new prisons will be operated by the public sector to support the modernisation of the public prison estate. We have previously announced that the operation of both our new prisons at Glen Parva and at Wellingborough will be competed via our Prison Operator Services Framework in shorter, targeted ‘mini’ competitions. Following a successful and robust evaluation of the bids received for the Wellingborough Operator Competition, we have a successful bidder, which will be announced soon.


This statement has also been made in the House of Lords: 
HLWS316

Department for Transport

Travel update

Grant Shapps: On 8 June, regulations came into force across the UK requiring people arriving into the UK from outside the common travel area to self-isolate for 14 days, with the exception of those on a short list of exemptions. These measures have contributed to keeping the number of COVID-19 transmissions in the UK as low as possible, helping to protect us from a second wave of the virus. Today I can confirm that the Government will shortly begin to ease the health measures at the UK border, allowing passengers to be exempted from self-isolation requirements in certain circumstances on arrival in the UK. This will apply to international rail, maritime, and aviation. The Joint Biosecurity Centre, in close consultation with Public Health England and the Chief Medical Officer, has developed a categorisation of countries and territories from which it is considered to present a lower risk from a public health perspective for passengers to enter the UK, without a requirement for 14 days’ self-isolation. This has been informed by factors including the prevalence of coronavirus within the country and, crucially, the numbers of new cases and potential trajectory in the coming weeks of the disease in the country. This categorisation will inform Ministerial decisions about the easing of the current border measures. I will announce further details including a full list of the countries and territories from which arriving passengers will be exempted from self-isolation requirements later this week. Although people will not need to self-isolate after entering the UK from these countries, they must not be complacent about following the public health advice on hand hygiene and social distancing. Separately, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is reviewing its travel advice. Further details will be announced later this week. Throughout this process public safety has been at the heart of our decision making. We have been guided by the science and worked closely with health and policy experts from across government to ensure the steps we are taking are gradual and will minimise the risk of new COVID-19 cases while helping to open our travel and tourism sector.


This statement has also been made in the House of Lords: 
HLWS315

Prime Minister

Cabinet Committees

Boris Johnson: Today I am publishing an updated Cabinet Committee list. I have placed a copy of the new list in the Libraries of both Houses.